Where librarians and the internet meet: internet searching, Social Media tools, search engines and their development. These are my personal views.

December 28, 2012

Two interesting news items have recently caught my eye. One from the New York Times "Libraries See Opening as Bookstores Close" and one from the Daily Telegraph "Bookshop numbers halve in just seven years" I don't think there should be any surprise that bookshops are continuing their decline - over 1 per day in the UK would seem to be the average, and there are a variety of reasons that are being given for it. Amazon is blamed of course, as are supermarkets, and eBooks come in for a fair amount of stick as well. The Telegraph quotes the figures that British consumers spent £261
million on e-books this year, almost double the £138 million spent in 2011.
At the same time physical book sales fell from £3.3 billion last year to
£3.1 billion this year.

The Telegraph article doesn't mention libraries, while the NYT is almost exclusively focussed on them, taking the view that libraries are replacing bookstores. The point is however being almost entirely being missed. The only thing that bookshops and libraries have really got in common is that both of them use the printed word as a coin of activity. For bookshops, that's their only coin - they just exist to sell books, and there's nothing wrong with that - it's what they've always done, and it's what they'll always do, until the final one closes its door. Or they diversify within their niche. A good example of this is Forbidden Planet - which I've been visiting for years. I just visited the website and it's branding itself as a cult entertainment megastore, and that's a pretty good description, since it sells books, comics, games, models, clothing, posters, toys and so on around the area of science fiction. I visit it every time I'm in London, and I'll usually find something to buy. However, thinking about it, I don't tend to visit it *as a bookshop* I visit because I want to see what's going on. I'm very unlikely to buy a Dr Who model, but I like to see what's there, but in getting me there, I'm going to see what's available in the way of Dr Who books. comics and other merchandise. FP as it is fondly known caters to a very specific community - of science fiction and fantasy fans, as well as general book readers and comic consumers. It also has a very nice website to back up the stores, and it has very knowledgable staff. In actual fact, it sounds to me as though it's more like a library than a bookshop really - because what it's really doing is providing a service to a community.

Libraries do not provide books. I'll say it again. Libraries do not provide books. They provide access to entertainment, they provide formatting options that members can use to read what interests them. They provide access to computers and so on. But that's just the trappings, and it's all too easy to confuse that with the real purpose of the library, which is to serve and hopefully improve the community that it it is in, and the people of that community which make up its members. I go into a bookshop and I buy a book, then I leave. Sure, I might wander around a bit, but it's a pretty cold and calculating transaction. If I come out without a book, the bookshop has essentially failed in its primary purpose, which is to make money out of my purchase of a book. However, I can walk out of a library empty handed, but I could have used a computer, been taught something, had an opportunity to work with a librarian to research something, have filled out an online form, have discovered how to take an ex employer to a tribunal, have got a lead for a new job and so on.

I really rather hope that libraries DON'T replace bookshops, because I wouldn't want them to dilute their offerings to me. It's much more important to a community that we protect the library than the bookshop, because sad to say, we can manage more easily without bookshops than we can without libraries. A bookshop is for the few, a library is for everyone. Of course, I hate the idea of bookshops closing - I can't resist peeking into them whenever I can, but if a bookshop is to survive it needs to change - the bookshop needs to become more like a library, a library doesn't need to become more like a bookshop.

One of the things that holds people back from using Google+ is the age old problem of finding people to follow. The Google Plus Directory is a pretty good solution to that problem. It provides a variety of different ways of finding people - by name, occupation, countries, schools, employers and so on. You can also link your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to it as well, in order to match up with the followers on there.

I can also filter searches once I have run them. For example, there are 6,234 people who define themselves as a librarian, 159 of those are in the UK, 3,916 are female, and 36 are based in London. Having found the people that I'm interested in I can view their profiles and add them to my circles quickly and easily.

If I allow the resource access to my Google profile it can then suggest people that I might want to add to circles based on my location, my college, and similar professions. It's not a very long list, but interesting nonetheless.

Findpeopleonplus is a good tool, and one that's worth remembering when you're either looking for people to link up with on Google+ or just doing a people search.

December 24, 2012

Just because it's Christmas it doesn't mean that I've stopped finding things. Photocat——Photo editing made fun is another photo editing tool which is nice, does what it should and provides good results. Free, no need to register etc. I thought I'd add in an example of what it can do - it sharpened this image up, I put an HDR filter on it, removed some stuff, added a border, texture and balloon and words. So, in the spirit of the season - Yuletide Felicitations to everyone, whoever you are, wherever you're from. Thank you for reading my stuff, commenting on it and for being nice and jolly.

December 22, 2012

The team at Flickr is offering a gift of three months extra on a pro account. This applies to existing Pro account holders and also people who take up an account. The fact that this is coming at Christmas is nice, but I suspect that it's got more to do with the idea of grabbing disgruntled Instagram users. I don't know how long the offer is for, so grab it while it's available, if you're interested.

If it's all getting a bit much for you, and you need a break from Bing crooning, Noddy belting it out and Sir Cliff being all Cliffy.... there are plenty of cynical, cruel and completely inappropriate songs to cut the sweetness of the season. In no particular order:

Ho Ho F*cking Ho. Kevin Wilson. Contains VERY bad language, and not to my taste at all. However, someone might like it.

Tom Lehrer. If you want biting cynicism, mixed with superb lyrics, you can't do better than Tom Lehrer. Sit back and enjoy his genius.

Merry Christmas you suckers. A fun little cynical ditty. The lyrics are excellent.

The night Santa went crazy. This is really amusing, if you like the idea of a crazed Santa going on the rampage and killing Prancer and the rest of them.

Dominick the Donkey. This is just..weird. An Italian Christmas donkey. Seriously.

The Anti Christmas Song. If you liked Bing and Bowie, then you probably won't like this.

Joss Stone - the Anti Christmas Carol. Not one of her best, to be honest.

The Anti Christmas song. Yup, another of them, with a horror turn.

Now, if you've made it this far - congratulations. I'm finishing with the very best Anti Christmas song that I know, which is also the most gentle, loving, sweet Christmas anthem that I know. It's quite simply, one of the best songs ever written. I give you the Pogues, with Kirsty McColl and The Fairytale of New York City.

December 21, 2012

According to the Facebook blog post: Update to Messaging and a Test - Facebook Newsroom Facebook is making changes to the way that you see messages. If you visit the messages section of your account (top left hand side) you'll see a little note appearing:

There are two inboxes that you've got with Facebook - the first is the 'normal' one that most stuff goes into, and the other one is called, well... 'other'. (Nothing if not inventive with their terminology are they!). That's where the rest of the stuff goes. If you click the 'Other' option, you can choose the type of filtering that you have in place, which is to say this:

Facebook goes on to explain:

"With filters, the following types of messages may reach your Inbox that before would not:

Someone
using Messenger for Android, who is not on Facebook but has your
contact info in their phone, wanted to send you a message

A friend of a friend wanted to include you in a message about a party along with some of your mutual friends

A friend wanted to send a message to your @facebook.com address

If
you see a message from someone you don't want to hear from in your
Inbox, you can always select “Move to Other” or “Report Spam” from the
Actions menu. You can also block people that you don’t want to hear from
on Facebook."

What they're also now doing is letting people work around the filters to send you messages, but they'll be paying Facebook a $1 at a time to irritate you. Facebook think this will reduce spam, I think it will reduce spam, but also make them some money at the same time, at your expense. So if you see stuff in your inbox you weren't expecting, that may well be the reason for it.

December 20, 2012

How much do your tweets say about you and your interests? BookRx recommends books and categories that you might find interesting by analyzing your Twitter activity. Just pop in a Twitter handle (no registration or linking to your account needed, so you can try this out with anyone - may be really helpful if you're desperate for a last minute present!) and it will come back with suggestions for you. I hadn't read any of the books that it suggested for me, but there were several there which did look interesting. It did however get my interests fairly close - Business, Sports, Science Fiction, Technology and Politics.

It worked very quickly and links you to the books on Amazon.com if you're interested in looking at them in more detail.

December 19, 2012

There has been much consternation recently over the fact that Instagram has changed their terms and conditions to mean that they can do pretty much what they like with your photographs. If you're not sure what Instagram is, they say this on their website: "It’s a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your photos with friends and family.Snap a picture, choose a filter to transform its
look and feel, then post to Instagram. Share to Facebook, Twitter, and
Tumblr too – it's as easy as pie. It's photo sharing, reinvented. Oh yeah, did we mention it’s free?"

That last point is an important one. It's *free*. We're currently a long way from the point where lots of stuff didn't cost anything to use - we all have to pay, in one way or another. Remember - if you can't see the commodity, you are the commodity. Now, what Instagram has actually done is clarify their existing terms and conditions a little bit. The ones that people signed up to read:

"By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the
Instagram Services, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully
paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify,
delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and
translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part
or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels,
except Content not shared publicly ("private") will not be distributed
outside the Instagram Services."

So basically they could do pretty much whatever they wanted to anyway. The real change is the fact that they can now use your images to create adverts, thus sharing your images - which you pretty much want shared anyway - with a wider group of people. So yes, they may actually be profiting in some way from your photographs by sharing them with a wider audience. You are getting access to a useful, free service. What they're actually doing is aligning themselves with their new owner, Facebook. Facebook has a condition, which relates to Sponsored Stories, that says the same thing. If you're already a Facebook user, you've already agreed to Facebook being able use your stuff this way.

Instagram has clarified the situation though (and I'd agree that initially they were a bit dense in not having realised what a fire storm they'd create) by saying that they're not going to be selling your photographs. There's a nice article in the Telegraph that goes into detail on this issue. What I find more interesting is the whole spat with Twitter, in that Instagram has stopped allowing images to be shared via the microblogging site. That flags up a whole lot of issues between Twitter and Facebook that we need to watch.

If it was me, and I had an Instagram account, I wouldn't be closing it, if for no other reason than it's incredibly unlikely any photograph of mine would be used in a different way. And if it was - then I'd regard it as pretty fair payment to use an excellent service free of charge. However, if you still don't like the idea, try these alternatives:

Camera Awesome "Camera Awesome takes your photos to the next level by shooting faassst
and taking sharper, better-exposed shots. Make your memories come alive
with stunning professional effects. 0-Tap sharing on the sites you
love."

EyeEm "Take beautiful photos with 14 real-time filters and share them in your social networks."

Hipster "Using Hipster you are able to create and send beautiful photographic
postcards. Your postcards will be composed of a photo, text, location,
and more, which will provide a window into what you are currently
experiencing."

Path "Path is the personal social network that is the best way to share life
and stay connected with family and friends. By focusing on beautiful
design and experience, Path is 5-star rated and loved by millions of
people."

Pixlr-o-matic "This fun and simple darkroom app makes it easy to add an effect, overlay
and border to get that retro, grunge, clean or stylish look, all in
just three simple steps. And with more options than any other photo app,
you will never be out of new styles."

Snapseed "Anyone can enhance, transform, and share their photos with ease using
incredibly advanced features from the leader in digital photography
software. Built-in Google+ capabilities make it even more powerful to
share your images with your friends and family."

Streamzoo "There's a filter and border combination for your every mood, and with so
many other awesome editing options, Streamzoo is the only photo app you
need in your toolbox. And once you're done, share your photo in one
shot with your friends and family on both Streamzoo and your favorite
social networks."

Tadaa "Tried a ton of photo apps both free and paid and this trumps all! Better than Instagram, download it, you won't regret it."

December 11, 2012

The UK had 201 fewer libraries in 2011/12 than the previous year, a drop of 4.5% on the total of 4,466 in the financial year 2010/11 as reported by the
www.guardian.co.uk based on results from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. Other reported figures are no less depressing - book issues down by 4.2%, though more children's fiction was taken out than in the previous year. For the first time there are more volunteers working in libraries than paid staff. Net expenditure is down down 5.1%, and forecast to drop a further 4.8%. There's also a depressing drop in visits to the web, down from 114,142 in 2010-11 to 97,721 2011-12 (figures are in 000s).

None of this should really come as any surprise at all, and in some real senses is utterly meaningless. Some people (mainly politicians I suspect) will simply start bleating on about how it means that we don't need libraries any more, and how out moded they have become, and they willl use the decrease in use as further justification for further cuts. This is of course totally nonsensical. The figures drop because people can't get to their nearest library any longer because it's been closed. They take out fewer books because the range of books is reduced. It doesn't mean that people value libraries less, or want to make less use of them. Furthermore, the figures don't show the true value of a library service. Where are the figures that show how many people were helped back into work? How about the number of people who were able to get valuable health information? The number of children who have a better quality to life by being able to read more effectively? The people who have been given hope by being helped out of abusive situations? The extent to which people are able to regain a level of respect through the use of the library? Those figures are just as important - if not more so, and those are the ones that are sadly missing from this accountants list.

In other senses the figures are very important indeed. The destruction of the library service in the UK continues almost wholescale, despite the best interests of 'Friends of' and other campaign groups working incredibly hard. The glib promises from politicians that it's not as bad as everyone has been making out look more fragile and hollow than a 50p Easter egg. In the current climate, where everything is measured by money - and only money that is immediately visible people's lives don't amount to much. Their ideas, their hopes and their aspirations are seen as nothing, because they can't be matched against pennies. The future that well educated children, capable of reading and enjoying reading can provide us with is not included in a spreadsheet.

Libraries are more than the stock. Libraries are more than the figures walking in and out of the library. A library - properly and efficiently run by a professional librarian can enthuse and empower a community and can make a real difference to everyone that it touches, both physically and virtually. The more libraries are cut, the more communities are destroyed. So yes, the statistics are depressing, but what's really depressing is the fact that the people who should care; local and national government all too often don't, since they can't take their eyes off the calculators.

Keep up with your news! Resultly is a tool that can best be described as a current awareness resource. Simply let it know what you're interested in (this could be a word, phrase, person, event, etc) and provide it with some parameters. These could be anything from the social network that you're interested in, to the length of time a video should be and so on. You can also input your location to get local data (though I'm not entirely sure if this will work outside the US).

The idea is that Resultly will then start checking content for you, and will display it on the screen when it finds anything new. It looks a little like this:

Quite how valuable it will be I'm none too sure. I'm certainly seeing more on Twitter than this tool is returning to me. I can also get Google to run email news alerts as they happen, so I'm not sure it's offering anything new for me in that respect. The value would be in the extent that I can focus searches, and use it to automate the searching of resources that are not made easy, such as Facebook, but I remain to be convinced really.